The Regulatory Flexibility Act 2016

Report on the Regulatory Flexibility Act, FY 2016: Annual Report of the Chief Counsel for Advocacy on Implementation of the Regulatory Flexibility Act and Executive Order 13272

U.S. SBA Office of Advocacy

First published January 2017

The RFA is Advocacy’s most effective tool for bringing small business concerns into the regulatory process. In FY 2016, Advocacy’s intervention on behalf of small business in federal rulemaking resulted in foregone regulatory cost savings of almost $1.4 billion. These cost savings came from Advocacy’s work on seven rules that were made final in FY 2016. These and other regulatory successes stem from small business involvement in rulemaking made possible by the RFA. Advocacy facilitated this during FY 2016 through 27 small business roundtables, 20 public comment letters, working closely with agencies on small business concerns, and ongoing federal agency training in RFA compliance.